Chapter 7: Chapter Seven: [Bloodshed?]

Gold bars! The kind as thick as a thumb.

Not one, not ten…

But a pile!

Chen Yan’s eyes nearly went cross-eyed!

Old Grandma… so rich?

Suddenly, he remembered when he was young, how Old Grandma half-jokingly said she’d teach him the basics, and how he’d scornfully refused.

Since then, for years, he’d scrimped and saved just to buy a cheap webcomic.

He’d hesitate to spend a yuan on a bottle of Nutri-Quick just to stay overnight at an internet cafe.

I…

I’m such a damn fool!

Chen Yan couldn’t help but slap himself!

If only I’d known…

Internet cafe overnight?

I’d have just bought the damn cafe owner’s wife!

No…

Was my poverty these past twenty years entirely my own doing?

His mind buzzed with shock, endless complaints, swirling thoughts.

After banging around like a gong for several minutes, Chen Yan slowly calmed down.

Once he cooled a bit, his intelligence returned—he immediately realized this might be problematic.

This… a whole room of gold bars? Valuable, sure… but damn it, how do you turn them into cash?

Chen Yan suppressed his excitement and roughly estimated the gold here.

Each bar weighed 100 grams, marked clearly on the surface.

Multiply by the number of bars.

Then multiply by today’s gold price…

Chen Yan sucked in a breath like a Lanzhou noodle.

He roughly calculated the value: over ten million in Dragon Nation currency.

Over ten million!

With a third of it, he could buy a three-bedroom apartment in Jin Ling City, plus a car.

The rest, deposited in a bank for conservative investment, could earn him one or two hundred thousand a year.

A single man, with a home, a car, an annual income of one or two hundred thousand.

He could lie flat and live comfortably.

But…

Chen Yan stayed cautious: turning this much gold into cash would be troublesome.

Fortunately, the vault wasn’t just gold—it held some cash too.

The bills looked old: green U.S. dollars and two large stacks of Hong Kong dollars.

The dollars were all $100 bills.

The Hong Kong dollars were all 1,000-dollar notes.

Chen Yan counted: about 160,000 U.S. dollars and 50,000 Hong Kong dollars.

That came to just over a million in Dragon Nation currency.

A million? Not bad—in Jiangsu’s Jin Ling City, you could buy a small apartment.

He didn’t know if this small private bank could exchange gold… maybe they’d sell it for him…

But still, banks can transfer money, right?!

Chen Yan looked around the vault.

Besides the gold and half a crate of dollars…

There were also some jade carvings.

He didn’t know their value, but they were definitely worth something!

One jade ring suddenly caught Chen Yan’s eye.

A deep, vivid green.

He didn’t understand jade… but the color made him instantly happy just by looking at it.

In layman’s terms: it looked like fake green plastic.

Could this be the legendary emerald?

He liked it so much he shoved it straight into his pocket.

Too reluctant to take it off, he’d wear it back.

At customs, he’d tie it with a string, hang it around his neck, and if asked, say he bought it at a craft shop—it was just acrylic.

Chen Yan steadied himself, thought for a moment, then made a decision.

The gold and jade would stay here for now.

He’d find a safe way to retrieve them later.

Don’t assume the outside world is safe.

As an outsider, suddenly producing millions in gold—where would he even go to cash it in?

Official banks? He couldn’t explain the source!

Underground channels? Get targeted by criminals, and he’d die without knowing how.

Think long-term!

·

When Chen Yan walked out of the bank, his hands were empty.

He’d deposited the cash into a bank account, then immediately wired it to his mainland bank account.

So now, he was a millionaire?

He had money now!

Didn’t he deserve a good meal?!

·

Gu Xiaoniang, covered in black soot, crawled out from the trees beside the railway.

Her stomach growled.

Ugh… hungry.

The girl pouted in pique.

She left the woods, asked passersby for directions… though her clothes were obviously too conspicuous, she at least got the way figured out.

She walked another half-day on foot.

Finally, Gu Xiaoniang reached the entrance of a village, searching toward the southern part of the village.

Eventually, she stood outside a courtyard gate.

Inside the courtyard: a small well.

Around the well—north, south, east, west—no, encircling the well in a circle—had been dug a trench.

Gu Xiaoniang leapt in, stomped her foot, and her body slipped inside, standing in the courtyard.

She stared at the circular trench around the well.

What kind of move is this?

Who digs a ditch around a well?

Like they’ve got some serious mental illness!

Further inside…

She pushed at a heavy bronze lock on the door.

The girl raised an eyebrow, her slender fingers applied pressure—CRACK—the bronze lock snapped in two.

As Gu Xiaoniang stepped into the main hall, she looked up and saw a black-and-white portrait hanging on the wall.

In the frame: an energetic old woman, smiling with unshakable confidence.

The girl froze, quickly stood at attention, brushed the soot off her clothes, turned to the cabinet, and indeed found a box of incense.

She lit three sticks, bowed before the portrait, then stuck them into the incense burner.

She whispered softly: “Greetings to the Venerable! May the Elder be well!”

She searched through several rooms…

In a drawer of the inner room, she found two courier return slips—both addressed to the same place, in Jin Ling City.

The recipient’s name on both: Chen Yan.

These were items Old Grandma had mailed to Chen Yan months ago—some dried pork and snacks from the countryside.

The old lady’s habit: never throw anything away, just stash it in drawers.

“Chen family? So the Elder really hid him away.”

Gu Xiaoniang’s eyes brightened with delight; she memorized the address, turned to leave—then paused and came back.

She rummaged through the wardrobe, found a slightly outdated black cotton jacket, old-fashioned in style.

This coat was bought by Chen Yan last month in Jin Ling, then mailed home for Old Grandma to wear in winter.

Aside from its outdated style, there’s nothing wrong with it.

At least after the girl took off her small blouse and put it on, she no longer looked like she’d stepped out of a period drama.

The girl stood before the mirror, studying herself for a while, then nodded in satisfaction.

Feeling her stomach rumble, she didn’t bother with politeness, walked straight into the kitchen, and found half a sack of rice, plus some pickled vegetables.

That was all—before Chen Yan left home, there had been some cured pork, but he’d given it all to the neighbors.

The girl lit a fire in the kitchen and cooked a pot of rice, eating it with the pickled vegetables…

Miamiamiamia…

A wave of happiness from being full rose in her heart, and only then did her lips curl upward slightly.

But… her brow furrowed again.

She still had to sneak onto a train to Jin Ling.

·

Chen Yan sat in the Hongcheng Airport terminal, his face tinged with restrained excitement, his eyes darting around, as if searching for something.

Well, actually, he was looking for ghosts.

Last night, bored in the hotel, he tried using the simplest spell he’d seen in that booklet.

Opening the Heavenly Eye.

The name sounded grand, but it wasn’t anything like that.

In truth, it was just a form of qi-seeing technique.

Soak fresh willow leaves and peeled young branches in water for an hour, then wash your eyes with that water.

Then, reciting the incantation from the booklet, circulate primordial qi through the body’s meridians to nourish the eyes.

This opens the Heavenly Eye, allowing one to see supernatural entities invisible to ordinary people. When channeling primordial qi into the eyes to observe others, one can also perceive their fortunes, declines, prosperity, and misfortunes.

After scouring the entire booklet, Chen Yan had determined this was the only supernatural technique he could currently attempt.

It was said that after opening the Heavenly Eye, one could see the demonic and strange entities around, and also read qi to discern people’s fortunes.

Right now, he was thrilled by the novelty, couldn’t help but glance everywhere.

Like a child who’d just gotten a new toy.

·

But… after opening his Heavenly Eye, Chen Yan had stared hard all the way from the hotel to the airport—and seen nothing at all.

In movies, there are those born with Yin-Yang Eyes who can see ghosts and monsters invisible to others…

Why haven’t I seen a single one?

Is the spell not working?

Boarding time arrived, Chen Yan…

Of course he was flying first class!

He had money now.

For Chen Yan, who’d been poor for twenty years, first class still held a bit of curiosity.

After all, he’d seen online posts about how to flirt with flight attendants on planes…

Someone had summarized dozens of methods, claiming high success rates.

The article ended with one line: These methods work only in first class.

Isn’t that… obvious?

If you’re already in first class, rich people naturally have a charm bonus when chasing girls.

·

Settling into his first-class seat, Chen Yan first fiddled curiously with the seat’s features, then pretended calmness as he ordered a drink.

But flirting with flight attendants? Forget it—he was a gentleman.

After all, in domestic areas, flight attendant scandals popped up constantly… Chen Yan had no particular fondness for the profession.

After takeoff, Chen Yan simply put on an eye mask and closed his eyes to rest.

He’d stayed up all night reading spells, and this was his first time entering cultivation, first time attempting a technique—his mind had been too excited to sleep.

Now, sleepiness was finally creeping in.

He’d closed his eyes and slept for less than an hour when suddenly he felt a jolt through his entire body!

Like falling in a dream, losing your footing, a chill spreading through your limbs, chest tight, breath short.

In short—everything felt wrong.

Chen Yan removed his eye mask, opened his eyes, thought for a moment, and realized—he was in trouble!

He had already absorbed primordial qi into his body, and entered the foundational method of circulation. With primordial qi inside him, his bodily sensitivity far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Especially his perception of external changes or hidden omens had become much sharper.

Thinking of this, Chen Yan steadied his breath and consulted the booklet’s “Qi and Fortune Cycle” to calculate his fortune.

He shouldn’t have done it—once he calculated, his face turned black.

“How is this possible?”

His flight’s fortune was dire.

Bloodshed was coming!

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